After missing Sky’s last four games due to health and safety protocols, Chennedy Carter made her impressive return for Chicago on Friday night.

Carter, the Skys’ top scorer with 17.1 points per game, flirted with a triple-double and finished the game with 15 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists in his team’s 92-78 win over the Los Angeles Sparks.

“I feel good,” Carter said. “It’s good to just be able to get up and sit back down, get back on my feet and be out there with the girls. It was definitely fun.”

Chicago ended a seven-game losing streak, remained in eighth place and is now trying to secure the league’s final postseason spot.

Carter last appeared in a game on August 25, but showed little signs of rust. Her 15 points (on 6-of-15 shooting) were second-most on the Sky, while her team-leading seven dimes were a season-high. She also finished the game with no turnovers.

“I’m just trying to learn how to play with my teammates,” Carter said. “I think we have a lot of special weapons that we haven’t even unlocked yet, and just taking advantage of them and seeing where they’re going to be, ultimately that unleashes my game. I’m not someone that always has to have the ball, so I can play with other guys, and that’s what we’re seeing right now.”

Carter’s return to the team helped rejuvenate the Sky’s offense, which had struggled in her absence. Chicago’s 92 points were the most since the last game before the Olympics, when they scored 93 against Las Vegas. In the four games without Carter, the Sky only scored over 80 points once.

Her 24 assists against the Sparks were also her third-most of the season.

“That kind of energy is contagious,” coach Teresa Weatherspoon said of Carter. “She gives everyone else an extra boost. She does an incredible job of getting to the basket, breaking down the defense and giving our players easy access to the basket, making easy baskets at the basket, easy baskets just by standing there and shooting. She makes life a little easier because she draws so much attention to herself.”

Carter received a standing ovation from the Chicago crowd as she left the game for the final time.

“It means a lot to me. I’ve never been at this point, at this moment, in my career, I don’t think ever,” Carter said. “To feel that not only from our fans, but from my teammates and my coaches, it makes me feel loved and appreciated. It’s an incredible feeling.”

While both the Sky and Atlanta Dream have identical records at 12-22, Chicago currently has the tiebreaker as it is 2-1 head-to-head (the teams will last meet on September 17th), with the Washington Mystics one game back.

“The seven-game losing streak was tough,” said Angel Reese, who had 24 points and 12 rebounds for her 26th double-double of the season. “I think we learned a lot about ourselves. Pressure gets to you, and I think we pulled ourselves together and fought for this win tonight.”

Weatherspoon added: “We talked in the locker room that this is going to be the last game of your life. You give everything you have, you leave everything on the field. And that’s what they did … and that’s how we approach every game (from now on).”

This defeat made the Sparks the first team to be eliminated from the playoffs.